Something had triggered the memory of Donna Blair’s rolls in the kitchen in hers and Wooten’s house on the big hill. We would go up to visit and Donna Blair would always be making fresh rolls. They were sweet, a little floury and delicious! When this memory triggered, I knew I wanted to make some sweet dinner rolls. This was obviously a mistake because a) I’ve never made rolls from scratch before and b) I don’t bake very well. But I was bound and determined to give it a shot, which let to my comedy of errors.First off all, let me start out by saying you should never …NEVER bakes stuff in the oven when the daytime temps are over 100 degrees every day. It will heat up the house to unbearable levels and will basically make you melt. That being said, I pulled out the water, milk and yeast and mixed it up in the kitchen aide mixer. I was then supposed to add softened butter. Here is my first problem. I didn’t let the butter soften long enough so I basically had little butter chunks floating in the liquid. This was disturbing, but I figured I might as well press on.I added the egg, sugar, salt and such. Then I slowly added the flour. As I got to the end, I switched to a dough hook because the stuff was just to thick. I let it mix with the dough hook for a couple of minutes, then I removed the bowl from the mixer and covered it to let it rise. I set the timer for 45 minutes.When the timer went off, I went to punch the dough but oddly enough, it hadn’t risen and was kind of cold to the touch. But never one to stop a task for such trivial problems, I pressed on. I broke the dough apart and rolled it into little balls and put them in a pan. I was going to let them rise another hour, but since everything had seemed cold I moved the pan on top of the stove and covered it. I had preheated the oven to 400 but since these were going to rise for an hour, I turned the oven down to about 250.When I came back after the second rising cycle, I was pleased to see some progress. The rolls seemed to have risen nicely and it was time to put them in the oven. Following the directions, I popped them in the oven and set the timer for 10 minutes. When the timer went off, I went and checked and they hadn’t even thought of turning brown yet.

“Hmmm…”, I thought. “Lets give them another 5 minutes.” So I reset the timer and went back to the chair. When the timer went off I checked them again and still they weren’t even close to brown. I decided to give them yet another 5 minutes. I set the timer and sat down and then it dawned on me. I had reduced the oven temperature to 200 when the rolls were rising. They were never going to cook at this rate!

I raced into the kitchen and turned the temp up to 400, wondering what I was going to finally end up with out of this fiasco. I gave them about 8 minutes and they were browning on top so I pulled them out. I pulled out my wooden cutting board to place them on, turned the pan upside down and shook, waiting for the rolls to pop out. Oddly, the rolls gave no response. I shook again. Still no response. I banged the edge of the pan on the cutting board. Still nothing. Then it dawns on me. I didn’t grease the pan! I grabbed a spatula and tried to scrape the rolls out of the pan but ended up just ripping things apart.

I looked down at my failure with scorn, but decided I might as well see what the taste and texture is like. I gathered some of the mush up on a plate, grabbed some jelly and sat down at the table. They were not the best rolls I’ve had, but they were definitely edible. I discovered from the taste that to attempt to recreate Donna Blair’s rolls, I would need to add some more sugar (hers were definitely sweeter) and a bit more flour and salt.

All in all it was a worthwhile experiment and I will definitely try again, but probably not until the weather cools in October time frame.

Like a lot of people, I’ve got several calendars tied into my Google Calendar (personal, work, holidays, birthdays, etc…). I also sync my Google Calendar to my iPhone. Since I had been syncing, it seemed that the Apple/Google tag team was only good for the top level calendar. When I linked the two on the iPhone, this was all that showed up. Since I really USE my iPhone, I grumbled and acquiesced and put almost everything on that top level calendar. Today, I decided that the company’s were too big to have overlooked this and that it must be me, so I started looking. It’s buried pretty deep in there, but, if you can find the page, it’s easy as pie. Google! Why do you have to bury this stuff!?

So here is the link to the page to selectively add all your calendars to the iPhone sync.

I went to go add Thanksgiving to this years google calendar. It seemed like common sense to just have it repeat every year on the 4th Thursday of the Novemeber so I checked the repeat box and selected yearly and was surprised there was no obvious way to set. After fiddling with it a little, I discovered that it, in fact, can be done. The setting is just a little odd so I thought I would pass it along for anyone else who might not know.

Call me old school, but I love my Levi’s 501 button fly jeans. 501s were the first jeans I bought when I was actually allowed to pick out clothes on my own, around age 19, I think. As I was allowed to stop wearing the Sear’s toughskins my mom had always gotten me, I looked around and saw two very important factors that drove my decision: Commercials and older cooler kids. I mean, they couldn’t both be wrong, right?

I’ve tried other jeans throughout my life. I tried to do the cowboy thing and attempted Wrangler’s, but, they never really fit right plus my IQ seemed to drop 30 points every time I pulled them on (This is a side effect that certain forces have tried to keep hidden since Wrangler started making jeans. Seriously, look around at the folks wearing Wranglers. Go ahead. Try it. Don’t they seem just a little ‘Larry The Cable Guy’? And if you’re one of the folks wearing Wranglers, “Oh you did such a good job! Now here’s a cookie. Go sit at the table and fingerpaint.”

Another great thing about the 501 button fly, is the button fly! How many times have you (especially you Wrangler zipper fly patrons) left the lavatory (Translation for Wrangler wearers: outhouse) and forgot to zip the fly? Now you’re running around with your fly down and you definitely can’t attract a sister wife that way, since the first place they look is the crotch. With the 501s, this doesn’t happen. If you somehow manage to forget to button them, within two steps they have jumped down to your ankles and tripped you so you face plant on the floor of the public restroom. It’s a little feature is what Levi’s likes to call ‘fly assurance’, and it’s done with a microprocessor in each button that monitors your brain waves for signs that you have not zipped your fly. It then trips you and attempts to force an abortion on you! (This is theory put forth by Senator Jon Kyl and ‘not meant to be a factual statement’).

I Won!!

My Novel!

What I’m Reading (*Currently Reading)

*On The Road
Does The Noise In My Head Bother You?
*Daemon
Rebel Buddha
*Life
Bossypants
*Dying With Confidence
Red
*Zen And The Art Of Archery
The Life Of Pi
Good Omens
Dharma Punx
Against The Stream
Eat, Pray, Love
Hardcore Zen
Writing Down The Bones
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse